Carol’s Chorale 2 Set Aside Prayer:
God, I ask that you would help me set aside everything I think I know about You, others, the world, and myself, for an open mind about You, others, the world and myself. Amen Today’s blog is about how GREAT God is. Early in my life, my view of God was everything negative, nothing good, much less Great. Through the years, I had acquired misbeliefs that I had heard and accepted as truth. Some of my beliefs were that God was mean, judgmental, arrogant, and opinionated. Thankfully, my thinking about God has been rearranged. This happened after some research, honest self-examination, prayer and meditation, and several 2 x 4 experiences—the kind where I’m smacked up the side of my head and I finally get it. I’m grateful that my concept of God has changed. I’m grateful that my concept of God can be what it is, and, that God will change my concepts as needed so I believe in truth. Changing my thinking from misbeliefs to truth has been and still is a process for me. Today, I know that it was me who was mean-spirited, judgmental, arrogant, and quite opinionated about God. Some of my beliefs about God now are that He is Kind, Accepting, and Humble, and since He created me and knows my true self, He lovingly shares His opinions with me as I read and study His Holy Word. I believe with all my heart that God is GREAT because He has given me truth and His Truth has, positively, set me free! God proves His greatness every day in almost everything I see, like a beautiful sunrise or sunset, a hummingbird flitting from flower to flower, that I woke up sober today, or maybe my great granddaughter as she smiles at me and sweetly says, “Thank you!… Would You be Willing… Have you thought about how Great God is or that you may have some misbeliefs about God? Would you be willing to take one moment and either focus on God as a Great God or challenge some old misbeliefs about God that could be rearranged? All praise, honor, and glory to God my GREAT Savior!

For many months, I have been praying that God would lead me to a calling that would encourage others, help at least one person know how Awesome He is, and fall in love with Him as I have. I believe this blog is the answer to that prayer. My mind sometimes races from one thought to another unless I force myself to center on one thing at a time. Recently, I have been using letters of the alphabet to concentrate on one thought each day about God. Take the word AWESOME. Have you ever sat for just one minute and thought about how AWESOME God is? I often used the word awesome for anything I thought was even a bit out of the ordinary. During one of my quiet moments with God, it occurred to me that Awesome was a word I wanted to stop over-using and save for something truly Awesome. I believe God is truly Awesome. He created the oceans, yet no two waves are alike. Each wave rolls to some shore, on its own time, in its own way. And clouds—some clouds are fluffy, some are long and feathery, and others are stacked like stairs, but I have never seen identical clouds. And what about cacti or trees, how many varieties are there? Again, I have never seen identical cacti or trees. And, then there are people. Wow! Talk about diversity. I believe God gave each person spiritual worth! I may not grasp or understand their spiritual worth but it’s there in spite of my poor vision. God knows what it is, and that’s what matters. It’s between them and God, not me and them. One of my gifts from an Awesome God has been healthy self-worth based on how He values me. I have worth because of whose I am, not because of society and how they may or may not value me. And there are all the other life-changing events, people, and circumstances that God has brought into my life—the birth of a child, a healthy, loving marriage, other family members, friends, the Bible, Jesus, life recovery, home, food, and my list goes on…. Would You Be Willing… Have you considered how awesome God is and how He has blessed you? Would you be willing to take one moment and do that now? All praise, honor, and glory to God, my Awesome Savior!